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Letters Patent No. 92,028, dated Jane 29, 1869.

STENCILLING-APPABATUS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

Be it known that I, THOMAS E. FIELDS, of the city of Louisville, in the county of Jefferson, and State of Kentucky, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Branding-Apparatus; and do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accom- 'panying drawings thereof, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists iu providing a convenient and efcient device, which I call a folding leaf, hinged to the stencil-plate, and by means of which the letter-plate of a 'branding-apparatns,` for branding letters or figures on' anysnrfaces where they may be desired, may he held securely down upon the stencilplate, and which may be opened and closed upon the'plate, with the requisite force and great facility.

To enable others skiiied in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construetion and operation.

In the drawingsp Figure l represents a top view of the apparatus, the red lines showing the folding-leaf B thrown back.

Figure 2 shows a cross-section, taken through the line f f; the red lines indicating the form of the leaf when thrown back.

AFigure 3 shows a side view of the cuneiform rod, and sections ofthe staples.

I cnt ont the plate A, of any suitable sheet-metal, and

of any desired length and breadth, according to the number and size ofthe letters which I wish it to hold, and then out out of. the plate enough of the material to leave an opening fort-he letters, and then a piece of sheet-metal, j, is bent over and soldered upon the end of the letterplate, to strengthen it, and for the last of the ,series of letter-plates to slip under it and abut against 5 land on the other, or handle-end, another piece is soldered and bent down, for a similar purpose, for the first letter of the series. y

The side E of the plate opposite to the hinge, is also bent down, as shown in the drawing, but space enough left to insert the upper ends of the lettersbetween it and the body of the plate, where they are to be confined.

The hinge-'side n of the plate is also bent over and soldered down upon the body of the plate, not'only to alford snicient stiffness to the plate on that side, but also to furnish the edge as au abutting-line, to prevent the letters from moving endwise, when the apparatus is in use.

The letters being made of thin plates of metal, each should have one of its sides corrugated, so as to t upon and over the edge of the adjacent one, in orderv that they may not yield laterally, and that they may make joints so closely, that neither brush nor paint may pass between them; and further, that these lapped` edges may present prominent points of bearing, by which the folding leaf may securely hold the letters in position.

The folding leaf is simply-a flat piece of sheet-metal, with the edge B bent around a wire, yfor the twofoldpurpose of giving it stiffness, and of affording a sharp line of pressure upon the letters, to hold them when it is closed upon them.

It turns upon hinges C C, upon the plate A, and is held down upon the letters with almost any required degree of force, by the wedge-shaped rod F, which is made to press upon the folding leaf, by heilig forced through a series of staples, a a a", whose form is shown in Figure 4, and whose openings, h h h., are graduated in height, to correspond with the slope of thetop of the rod F.

The staples are passed through holes punched in the plates A, and their feet riveted on the under side.

In making them, a piece is out out of sheet-metal, by

a proper die, and then, with another die, a piece is cnt out of that, so as to leave the opening lt.'

When the folding leaf' is turned back, any arrangement of letters desired may be made,`and the foldingleaf closed down over the staples. Then, by `inserting the cuneiform rod F through the eyes of the staples, and pressing against the handle j, the leaf may bey vpressed down as tightly as may he necessary, and. ther apparatus is ready for the operation of branding.A

Vihat I 'claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

v I. The described stencil-plate A, in combination with the described folding leaf, B, constructed and arranged and operated substantially as and 'for the purpose described.

2. The described cuneiihrm rod F, in combination .with the described graduated staples a a a', constructed and operated substantially as described.

3. The described stencil-plate A, in combination with the described folding leaf B, When'both are used in combination with the described cuneiforni rod F and Witnesses J. L. GLEMMONS, T. H. OAvANsUGn, Sr.- 

